Free for ALL Friday!
It's Free for All Friday!
It’s Free for ALL Friday! Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (legal) hocus-pocus.
The Rise of Million-Dollar Companies With Just One Employee
AI tools make it easier for founders to get started alone, and many stay that way as they grow
Ben Broca launched a company last December that offers AI tools to entrepreneurs. He’s already added 10,000 paying customers and is on track to bring in $10 million in revenue this year.
One thing he hasn’t added: any other employees.
The 40-year-old is part of a class of entrepreneurs who are launching, and then often running, new companies on their own. Artificial intelligence tools answer Broca’s emails, help write and debug code, field requests from customers, sign up new subscribers and grant refunds when issues arise.
Broca relishes his ability to make whatever decisions he wants on his own, often from his sun-drenched Sausalito, Calif., living room.
“I think compromises make lukewarm results,” he said.
An analysis by the payments company Stripe shows there are thousands of solo operators on the company’s platform that are generating over $1 million in revenue, with their ranks doubling between 2023 and 2025.
The number of solo operators crossing the $10 million threshold nearly tripled in that same span. In the past, people without business contacts or particular savvy might not have known how to get their ideas off the ground, said Ernie Tedeschi, Stripe’s chief economist.
“The bar for getting started has never been lower,” said Julian Weisser, who runs a San Francisco-based accelerator for solo founders working in tech.
Link: Wall Street Journal (Te-Ping Chen)
9 Things Experts Wish You’d Do in Midlife to Increase Longevity
How you care for yourself at this life stage matters a lot for your later years
How you treat your body and brain in your midlife years, loosely defined as 40 to 60, can hugely influence how you age in the decades to come.
The seeds for many age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia, are sown in middle age, so it’s important to start thinking about prevention early. And it takes a lifetime of healthy habits, not just a few weeks, to move the needle on your longevity.
“Midlife is the ideal time to make changes, not only to benefit you in the present, but also in the future,” said Margie Lachman, a psychology professor at Brandeis University and the author of “Primetime: A New Vision for Midlife.”
After all, she added, “What happens in midlife doesn’t stay in midlife.”
We spoke with experts about some small habits that can make a big difference.
Do interval training.
Run errands with a friend.
Eat fermented foods.
Lift weights.
Include a little protein in every meal.
Take the stairs.
Get the shingles vaccine.
Make a list of your parents’ chronic health conditions.
Go to bed at the same time every night.
Link: New York Times (Dana G. Smith)
Evangelists Say They Are Heeding a Biblical Command to Preach on Flights
In-flight evangelists have preached sermons and busted out guitars in recent years. Some travelers lament that they “can’t even walk away.”
Mark Roberts was on a Spirit Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Chicago last year when a woman stood up across the aisle before takeoff and greeted her fellow passengers.
She started talking about Jesus with a bright smile, he recalled.
“Super cheery and super excited about everything and ready to have fun,” said Roberts, 25, a content creator and frequent traveler who described the scene on TikTok. “But she was talking about, like, the scariest stories in the Bible.”
To small crowds on airplanes — and often to much larger audiences via social media — self-described evangelists are seizing the opportunity to share their faith with other passengers, whether fellow travelers asked for the word or not.
“They have no choice but to hear the truth,” said Whitney Lynn, an evangelist, producer and singer-songwriter from Orlando who said she preaches on most flights she takes, filming the proclamations for social media. “When I have a gift and I have a life raft, if you’re drowning, I want to give you that life raft so you can be saved.”
A video she posted earlier this month showed a postflight preaching session given as passengers waited to disembark in San Diego. Almost no one looked around as Lynn, 40, spoke for a little over a minute about the weather, Jesus, sin, hell, redemption and heaven. Beneath the clip, she wrote: “I just love a captive audience.”
“That would be my nightmare,” someone wrote in response to an “open air airplane preaching” video posted on TikTok in June. “Can’t even walk away.”
Link: Washington Post (Hannah Sampson)
Actors Say Their Performances Are Being Stolen by AI Doppelgangers
What does it feel like when an AI version of you takes your job?
That was the strange reality facing actor Ashley BeLoat when she came across an AI-generated remake of a series she had starred in.
Last year, BeLoat played the lead in “Hate the Way I Love You,” a “micro drama” released by the app MoboReels, about a young couple whose future is shattered by a cancer diagnosis. She was shocked to discover, a few months later, that a series with the same plot appeared on the same app. The AI-generated actor in her role appeared younger and glammed up — with longer hair and a plunging neckline — but mimicked BeLoat’s movements and had a voice that sounded eerily like hers.
“Being an actor is a very vulnerable thing,” she said. “It requires us to live private moments in public.”
“If there’s a lack of trust in who we’re working for, not only does it prevent us from giving something good for the viewer, but it takes away the reason that we do this,” she continued.
Brittany Marsicek also starred in a MoboReels show — “Ex-Husband, Step Aside, Lady Boss Returns” — that was remade with AI. Her character looked different, but acted and sounded like her.
“You’re thinking, OK, maybe they’ll edit it to be horizontal instead of vertical,” Marsicek said of the contract. “You don’t think that their editing includes completely changing your likeness.”
Link: Business Insider (Lucia Moses)
Backup: https://archive.is/U5Xus#selection-1499.0-1499.53
California Will Pay You to Buy Your First EV — But Not Every Model Qualifies (Including Many Teslas)
California’s new rebate program will offer first-time EV buyers $3,500 off qualifying new vehicles and $1,750 off qualifying used ones
If the pain of filling up has you pondering the potential cost savings of an electric car, great news: California has a new rebate program that will make it less expensive for people to buy or lease their first zero-emission vehicle.
Later this summer, the state will launch a rebate program that will take $3,500 off the price of a first new ZEV bought or leased by a California resident, and $1,750 off a first used ZEV purchase.
The governor’s office announced that California is partnering with 13 automakers to match state contributions for a $270 million pot of funds.
Those rebates — offered at the point of sale, or “cash on the hood” in car dealership parlance — do have limits, though income isn’t one of them. The program is open to California residents regardless of how much they earn, as long as it’s their first ZEV.
It applies only to fully electric vehicles, not hybrids. For new ZEVs, the cost of the vehicle must have an MSRP of $50,000 or less, and $25,000 for a manufacturer pre-owned vehicle program.
An exception: If the manufacturer is headquartered in California and its entire fleet consists of ZEVs, there is no limit on the MSRP or used-vehicle sales price. The most notable companies that qualify in that category are Rivian and Lucid.
While Tesla originally operated out of California, Elon Musk moved headquarters to Texas in 2021, meaning its vehicles are subject to the $50,000 cap — so while some lower-end models will qualify, you’re out of luck on a rebate for a new Cybertruck, Model S sedan or pricier Tesla trims.
Link: San Francisco Chronicle (Jessica Roy)
Italian Embassy Says Sorry for Pupils’ Bad Behaviour in Bangkok
The teenagers and a teacher insulted a Thai woman who had asked them to make less noise
Italy has made a public apology after a group of teenagers visiting Bangkok insulted a Thai woman on a train who had asked them to be quiet.
A video posted on TikTok shows the female passenger on the BTS SkyTrain accusing the pupils of being too loud, saying: “In Thailand we don’t scream,” and asking what country they were from.
The students mock her, answering “Thailand” and calling her a bitch. One teenager raises a middle finger, while the others laugh and continue to make noise.
In the video, posted on the social media platform on Thursday, a teacher can be heard saying, in a sarcastic tone: “Sorry for bringing money to your country.”
The teacher tells the commuter to “Shut the f*** up,” adding: “They are just children.”
Thousands of social media users, many of them Thai, left angry comments on the Facebook page of the Italian embassy in Bangkok after the video went viral.
An embassy representative said on Sunday: “The embassy of Italy in Bangkok expresses its deep regret and strongly condemns the inappropriate behaviour.
“The inappropriate behaviour of the group of under-age tourists does not in any way represent the Italian people.”
The embassy posted another video in which three adults and a teenager apologised for the incident.
“I perfectly know that money can’t buy respect,” a teacher says.
Link: The Times
4 Prompts That Can Tell You What Chatbots Really Know About You
It can be unsettling what Gemini and ChatGPT have figured out about you and how easily your privacy can be punctured. Here’s how to find out.
As a regular user of chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini, I thought I had a clear sense of what the artificially intelligent assistants knew about me (like how I’m a father seeking baby gear recommendations and instructions for patching drywall). Beyond that, I’ve never divulged anything deeply personal as I would to a therapist.
But when I experimented with some prompts asking what the chatbots had guessed about me — insights they had gathered from connecting the dots across many conversations — I was perturbed.
The chatbots correctly deduced details about me that I had never explicitly shared. [The prompts I used?]:
Prompt 1: Tell me everything you’ve figured out about me that I never actually stated — the things you inferred from how I write and what I ask, including my age, income level, where I live, my personal situation. Show me what tipped you off.
Prompt 2: Predict how I’d handle things I’ve never told you about: money, stress, conflict, risk and the decision I’m likely to make next in my life. Tell me how confident you are in each prediction.
Prompt 3: Based on everything you know about me, name the personality traits I most likely don’t see in myself. My blind spots, my insecurities and the way I actually come across.
Prompt 4: What have you figured out about me that is embarrassing or sensitive? Information I wouldn’t necessarily want the public (e.g., an employer or a stranger) to know.
Link: New York Times (Brian X. Chen)
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend. See you in the comments!